summer sonic

[cldt]

the trip to osaka was possibly the most spontaneous thing i've ever done. it all happened like a whirlwind, and as impromptu trips go, it could've been much much worse. but in the end, the journey and the rest were irrelevant. i went for the shows, and they were surreal. watching these people whom i didn't know if i'd ever had the chance of seeing

Comments

[cldt]

i did see them at the music terminal thing, and i was so overwhelmed it was the biggest incentive for me to go to summer sonic. phoenix canceled on the day of the show, which was a bum, but i got to have jenny lewis wink at me after her gig and the 17-year-old-fangirl inside me shat her pants.

the mogwai gig at the wall was great, but i opted for nin and shat my pants twofold. were you at the formoz rock festival in 07? mercury rev was pretty brilliant, but it was even better this time, probably cause of the superior sound system. but i guess that's to be expected considering how limited the budgets for most festivals are here. and heartsrevolution only played in tokyo, plus i've never heard of them. will check them out.

you're right 甜梅號 is hands down the best post rock band here...not that there is much competition. just saw them at music terminal too, and amazing as usual.

man i envy you living in hip side of the world. did you know nin was scheduled to play here tmr and they had to cancel a few days ago cause apparently the event founder went bankrupt from the music terminal festival? THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS. /bitterness

[canisium]

Merc Rev at Formoz 07 was AMAZING! I pretty teared up when they played "Holes" Q_Q. And Heartsrev is great if you enjoy a spazzier version of Crystal Castles' electro/8bit danceyness.

In terms of TW post-rock, 阿飛西雅 and 8mm Sky are also pretty sweet -- though Aphasia tends towards the repetitive/anime-style melodramatic/uber-morose, and 8mm Sky's English-only vocals are a little annoying.

WTF @ NIN cancelling. I was wondering how Music Terminals was even viable at all, given that it's competing with NIN, Linkin Park, Mew and a whole slew of other expensive concerts -- at a time of deep recession, no less! And after Broken Social Scene, Jarvis Cocker, Mogwai and Oasis have already laid waste to so many college-aged TW indie fans' savings. It didn't seem like they had a firm grasp on how to run a TW-scaled intimate festival like Formoz either. Here's to hoping Formoz is awesome next summer-

[cldt]

i adore 8mm sky but they've been on such a long hiatus, i think due to one of the band members serving in the military. the drummer was last seen working as a crew for music terminal heh. hopefully they'll make a comeback soon.

do you know what 破報 is? the weekly paper with editorials, reviews and schedules of cultural events? a writer for the newspaper, 吳牧青, is the person who founded the new company, straight music house, responsible for last year's the music gig, this year's oasis and nin, as well as the music terminal festival. he posted on the straightmusic board on ptt(bbs) saying that the sales for music terminal were so godawful he's gone into millions of debt, and had no resources left to go through with nin, which according to him, sold fewer tickets than the mew gig did. but i suspect this was largely to do with their inexperience and shit marketing skills.

anyway, although it doesn't personally affect me, it's still a sad affair when an event-holding organization closes down, cause it means fewer shows in the future. sigh. hopefully i won't have to rely only on the memories of this amazing summer to survive the rest of 2009.

[canisium]

Daaang, seriously? It's sad to hear 吳牧青 had to go into backbreaking debt doing something he loves. Is he still writing for Pots Weekly? Last I heard he left on some unhappy terms... but yeah his marketing skills aren't quite up to par with The Wall/TRA's as they hire really good designers/viral advertisers. I didn't really know Mew at all, for example, but after seeing vids for "Comforting Sounds" and "Am I Wry?" on the splash page of The Wall's website and hearing about this band ad nauseum from Orbis' blog, I was very intrigued.

Also, 吳牧青 and the TRA/Wall/Freddy/Orbis gang seem to have some (crypto-political?) rivalry issues going on. Or at least 牧青 hates them.

Pretty ironic about Mew selling more than NIN, because in their USA tours Mew OPENS for NIN! Ah well, at least Oasis sold well. People in TW have been dying to see them + Radiohead.

Oh yeah and I think the 8mm drummer's was living in NYC for a while! Kind of a roundish rock of a guy, called Zen or something? I think I saw him in Williamsburg a year ago.

[cldt]

i think you're right about him having left pots weekly, and yes there is definitely rivalry going on between him and the freddy gang. in fact, there is a ridiculous amount of drama going on in the industry, which seems even more ridiculous once you consider the meager volume of shows there actually are.

the oasis gig probably marked the beginning of his downfall. the sound was horrendous for areas not immediate to the stage, and their strategy of handling criticism involved petty name-calling and cyber cat-fights, which certainly didn't help their reputation. apparently he invested all the profit from oasis into music terminal, which sold sth like 2000 tickets, probably just enough to cover placebo's act. the rest you know.

man i resent you for having seen radiohead.

the drummer for 8mm sky is indeed a roundish rock of a guy. don't know what his name is though. but he's pretty hard to miss since, and i mean no malice, he resembles a real-life caricature. i once caught him checking out their own cd in the record store in eslite heh.